You vastly over-estimate Aerii's progress. I haven't put much into her since creating Fireflash; who has done her job of slowing Aerii down well. I did take some time to rush around Desert some Saturday, but I had a splitting headache and didn't get far. She's far from pushing 13.

Another thing to account for is the number of quests and the xp amounts. There's not much past 11-12 worth running; Gianthold, Vale, Harbringer, IQ, Savarath. And I am unimpressed with pretty much everyone's ability to handle Shavarath save Mirys, who goes there and solos quests on normal. But then, she's geared out to an extent no other character in the guild is, save maybe Pilz/Bimbelbo.

Which is another issue with the TRs. We're now at the level of using Greensteel. Had Aerii waited, she could have had 150 more sp, 45 more hp, additional concentration, a raise dead clicky, and possibly even sp regeneration. Peter could have a pair of Lightning II Khopeshes waiting for level 12, which are extremely powerful against anything not electric immune.

We're no better off than first life characters save a couple extra build points and a past life feat that may or may not be useful. Marianelle's is, extra damage always is on a Rogue, and I think the Rogue may offer SA damage or something. That's why I have refused to TR anyone else until they have at least some gear; I'm missing just some GS mats for Rachail or Mirys to craft a hp goggle, and mostly on tier II. But I have a lot of grinding to go for the GS items, and still hitting HoX and voD as well, and DQ etc…

The real issue is in the difference in play styles and class capability. Post U9 spell pass, Sorcerers are very very strong at tearing through trash mobs. They can inflict serious damage against boss monsters with their new DoTs. They can mitigate huge amounts of damage with spells like Stoneskin and Displacement. And that's WITHOUT taking a Savant line.

Divine casters are just getting into their single target DoT, and that's basically it for effective offensive spells. The bulk of their best spells come in at level 6 and up. Melee are unable to clear large groups as fast, and are more reliant upon casters for crowd control and divines for healing to quickly manage mobs. Otherwise they have to be careful and move slowly and thoughtfully. Bards lack any real offensive magic, limited healing and a limited spell pool, and really only have good crowd control and buffing. And if they build for melee, likely not much cc ability.

Corwin doesn't play as much, so his characters will lag behind. He's pretty much got to resign to that fact; we cannot play his characters, and when they may spend a couple of months in between playing, there's no way when you, me, Jo, and Peter play nearly every day. So either he picks one to focus on, or two or three end up struggling two or three levels behind us.

The only quests we need to do are the three flagging ones. Wiz King is huge XP, similar to VoN3. I'm planning on farming it soon, actually. After I flag. But Chains is hard to solo, no matter the class or build (Mirys did it, but it was not an easy task. Which is what she did, prior to capping and finding that the challenge comes from a idiotically low drop rate).

We need to hit Lordsmarch, if for no other reason than to maybe have another chance at grabbing Maenya's Fists for Mirys! It's also good for Peter's paladin to have, as it covers three pally stats, gives true sight, and a bonus to hit and damage.

You are correct on the Necro series. The alternative is running quests which at this point aren't great xp for our level, are annoying, and take too long. Deathblock is common, and I'd just as soon skip Necro altogether personally.